Our travelers’ favorite trips: Middle East and North Africa

We love hearing all about our travelers’ trips around the world, and the tailor-made itineraries they planned that opened doors to authentic travel experiences. Here, we gathered a selection of reviews from travelers who enjoyed bespoke North Africa and Middle East trips with us last year, each one diving into what it was about booking with TravelLocal that made their vacation even more special. Tempted to plan a tour of your own in 2025? Read on for all the travel inspiration you could need.

Traveler reviews: top North Africa and Middle East trips

Kristen Cummings, traveled to Morocco in July 2024

Our local expert Angela was outstanding to work with from the beginning. I enjoy trip planning, myself, and she was very flexible in allowing it to be a collaborative process. She was very responsive and answered all of my questions thoroughly – not just about my itinerary, but also about travel to Morocco in general. I highly recommend her!

Part of our trip included needing a driver for two weeks to get to the different cities. I thought that this would be a driver to get us between the different cities, and that any local transportation would be on our own with a taxi. However, our driver, Mustapha, made it clear that he was at our disposal for anything for the two weeks. Mustapha was professional, a good communicator, and ALWAYS on time. His English was better than I was expecting it would be, and we could communicate basics pretty easily, and for more complicated things we could handle those through Google Translate or WhatsApp, but the language barrier was never really an issue.

Our family of four was able to spread out in a large 15-passenger van that was spotless. Mustapha was fun and we shared many laughs with him along the way. (He even let me ride shotgun and sing karaoke on the guide microphone!) Once, we asked for a ride to a restaurant, not realizing it was within walking distance, and he walked us through the medina so we wouldn’t get lost. He accommodated any and every stop we wanted to make, frequently joining us. He was great with our teenagers. He felt like more than a driver… he was part of our family for two weeks!

Thank you to TravelLocal, Angela, Mustapha, and the other walking tour guides that helped make our trip exactly what we wanted. Everything was going so smoothly I kept thinking, “We must have good travel karma,” but really we had a good team ensuring our trip was perfect.

Read more: Best cities to visit in Morocco

Nicola Honan, traveled to Tunisia in May 2024

Overall, we had a wonderful trip to Tunisia. Ali was always punctual and keen to offer his knowledge, opinions and advice. He was also very responsive to any requests and flexible with the itinerary to meet weather conditions and our interests. Unfortunately, a couple of local guides were not available at the last moment, so we missed the benefit of their specific local knowledge.

Gregg Love, traveled to Egypt in November 2024

My first experience with TravelLocal was in 2022, when I started to research my trip of a lifetime to Egypt. I had previously traveled solo to numerous European countries and had always arranged and booked these trips by myself, allowing me to stay wherever I wanted, see and do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I realized that my trip to Egypt would not be as easy to arrange to see and do the things I wanted to do as well as understand what I would be seeing; so, I decided to look for prearranged tours, though not convinced it was the way I wanted to travel.

After numerous searches I came upon TravelLocal. Their website seemed of interest to me as it indicated I could work directly with a travel agency in Egypt to help me plan and arrange this once in a lifetime trip. I was skeptical about working with a travel agency as I did not want a typical multi-tourist cookie cutter tour, as well as being concerned about working with a travel agency located outside of the United States.

Within seconds TravelLocal connected me with Amira from Memphis Tours. Within two days, Amira contacted me with a preliminary itinerary for the 17-day trip I had requested, along with a price for a solo traveler. It included a private driver and guide for my entire stay, all of the entry fees, and the costs of my hotel and cruise accommodations. It was extremely comprehensive. Amira was just wonderful in her prompt and timely responses. Her professionalism and knowledge about Egypt made me feel so at ease. She seemed to understand exactly how I liked to travel and made several wonderful suggestions.

I recently returned from Egypt and cannot express how amazing my trip was. I have memories that will last a lifetime. Thank you TravelLocal. Thank you Amira and Memphis Tours. I am already working with another TravelLocal agency to plan my next adventure to Southeast Asia. I already know this will be another trip of a lifetime, and TravelLocal has my back should anything unexpected occur.

Chris Austin, traveled to Jordan in April 2024

An amazing experience. We packed so much into 10 days. Without the local knowledge of our guide Nermin, I’m sure we would not have been aware of all of the incredible experiences available to us!

Read more: A complete guide to Wadi Rum: Jordan’s Red Desert

Susana Dumas, traveled to Morocco in October 2024

We absolutely recommend Hamid and his team of very friendly, knowledgeable and honest individuals who will help you navigate the beauty and awe of the magnificent country of Morocco and its goodhearted people. The way they managed and organized our 11-day long trip was just impeccable, from the start to the very end.

Gerald Hatton, traveled to Egypt in July 2024

All worked very well and efficiently. I did not know that TravelLocal had let the full operation of the tours to Memphis Travel in Egypt. They did a job that varied between 8 or 9 out of 10. Our guide George Atef in Luxor and Azwan was 10 out of 10. Outstanding.

My wife and I had private guides so that we could, as seniors, set our own pace. It worked very well. This picture was taken on a side tour as we cruised down the Nile on the Historia liner (a great experience). We stayed at the lovely Kempinski Nile Hotel in Cairo, and all meals were included either on the boat or in the hotel.

Read more: Visiting Egypt’s most popular attractions: tips from our local partner

Make it happen

From Egypt’s icons to the warmth of Morocco’s locals, our local experts are ready to help you discover new and fascinating parts of the world. Pin down your next adventure with their help: simply by reaching out to them, you’ll soon be whisked away on North Africa or Middle East trips of your dreams…